Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Eleanor Kuhns

I just started Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly. I love the character of Benjamin January. Hambly makes him so believable I feel I know him so the treatment of a black man during that period is horrifying. After I finish Good Man Friday I plan to read The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland. Japan, especially in the early 1700s, was truly an exotic society.

My previous book was nonfiction: Woman's Work, The First 20,000 Years. It covers the history (archaeological as well as cultural) of the textile arts: weaving and dyeing primarily from their beginning in the Neolithic. Fascinating. I feel sort of humbled to be at the end of such a long line. I love knowing the history of things. Since my main character is a weaver (and I also weave), I continually research looms. I did a lot of research into dyes for Death of a Dyer, to the point of dyeing fiber with onion skins, madder and indigo. We really don't appreciate all that goes into our textiles. I also discovered that I didn't realize how much trade went on during that time period.